Trinity bar and music venue in Harrow was included as part of TfL's grassroots music tube map.

Established in 1992, Trinity is an independent music venue and pub in Harrow.

With its unique gothic church interior, Trinity offers concerts, club nights and a venue for hire in the centre of the town.

Whilst small in capacity, Trinity has made a major contribution to London's music scene over the years.

The venue has hosted the likes of Kate Nash and Scouting for Girls in their early days, even giving Bastille their first gig.

Chris Perdue is one of the co-owners of Trinity. He discussed the venue's history, the TfL music tube map, and how the grassroots music scene is under threat.

Perdue said: "I have been here since our opening night in 1992. I was looking for a job after uni and never left.

"The bar has a unique design and is modelled off a church. The Church of England often sells off things that they don't use. So we used old pews as the bar fronts, and the mirror surround upstairs is fashioned from an old organ."

"We were initially dismissed as part of the ‘toilet circuit’ - a slang term used to describe the less glamourous, ‘rough and ready’ venues."

Despite its understated ranking, Trinity has hosted many bands which have gone on to play arena shows, making major contributions to the British music industry.

Perdue said: “These bands don't just suddenly appear, we are the development arm that puts groups into big venues.”

Despite playing a fundamental role in giving bands an important early platform, allowing them to progress further into the industry, according to Perdue, grassroots venues have been neglected.

Perdue said: "The live music industry is in real danger at the moment, especially grassroots venues.

"It was evident during Covid that the arts sector doesn't consider grassroots venues. Instead money was given to opera houses and much larger places."

"We certainly are one of the only independent venues in this part of London, the next ones are not until Camden. There used to be music venues in Kilburn and Cricklewood but they closed down."

Perdue echoed the findings of the Music Fans Voice survey by saying that concerts are increasingly expensive nowadays, and therefore exclusive to those who can afford it.

Trinity aim to keep this cost down, and run gigs for just £5 with free access to the club afterwards.



Events and community outreach at Trinity

Perdue said: "Spaces like this can't just survive on gigs alone. We do the indie choir here who meet every Tuesday."

The North West London gay and lesbian society also meet at Trinity weekly.

TfL's grassroots music map

Perdue said: "In just a couple of weeks I have had 2 phone calls from journalists and have had people asking to do gigs here."

"Anything that brings attention to the grassroots music scene is good for us."

Music Venue Trust

Perdue discussed how the Music Venue Trust, one of the organisations involved in creating the grassroots map, has played a massive role in supporting small venues like Trinity over the years.

Perdue said: "The Music Venue Trust saved the grassroots music scene during Covid."

Run by Mark Davyd, the trust massively helped grassroots venues over Covid. It fought to get grassroots music venues into the Culture Recovery Fund, a scheme established after the pandemic to tackle the crisis faced by Britain's cultural sector.

Perdue said: "With their funding during the pandemic we were able to rebuild parts of the building as well as repaint the outside."

The future

"Its rough out there at the moment, definitely not the same as it used to be."

"I read the papers a lot and see that places are closing down."

"We have always relied on your people coming in for a club night. There has been many changes to the way people socialise now and young people don’t drink so much. We have to look for other ways to try and make an income."

"The Music Venue Trust is working on plans to introduce ticket sale levies in big venues to be given to smaller grassroots venues. If there was a £1 ticket levy on every arena show in the UK the benefit to small venues would be immense." 

Perdue believes that grassroots venues are the places which eventually bring these acts to the big places, and should be recognised and supported for it.

“These bands don't just suddenly appear, we are the development arm that puts groups into big venues..”

Sounds of the Suburbs, small record shop and venue in Ruislip

Sounds of the Suburbs is an independent record shop and music venue in Ruislip, also named in TfL's grassroots music tube map. I spoke to the owner, Tony Smith who discussed the shop's history, and grassroots music in North West London.

Smith said: "I have been a record collector for 40 years and have been a seller at record fairs for 30 years. I accumulated so much stuff that I decided to set up a shop 9 years ago."

"I kept a lot of customers from record fairs with patrons as far as Japan. Many of my long standing customers are other record collectors, who often travel from far to see the shop."

Smith spoke of how the shop is often one of the stops on music collectors' itineraries when they travel from abroad.

"People buying records is going down here and new customers are hard to find, especially since the cost has risen."

Explaining the disappearing venues of the grassroots scene Smith said many people have been affected by Covid, and have got used to staying indoors.

He also discussed that many venues have been closed down due to regeneration, to make way for flats and other land uses.

Smith holds concerts in his shop which brings publicity to small bands and also draws public attention to an independent music store people may not have known existed before.

Commenting on being included in TfL's map, Smith said: "Its exposure for sure. You can’t beat seeing your name in print and it attracts people to the shop."

"I wasn't aware of it until one of my customers showed me on their phone.

"Its also great to see other local venues there."

Smith seeks to make events at Sounds of the Underground financially accessible, with live music events either free of charge or having tickets under £10.

He added: "Venues need to talk more between each other to boost engagement."